(So let's just hope they're abundantly stupid like the aliens in Signs and never take into account the fact that if water kills you on contact, maybe you shouldn't invade a planet covered in mostly water, inhabited by beings made of mostly water. HTF did that movie ever get past the script stage?)
Use a little imagination, say the beings in Signs were actually biologic helper-constructs and that the water vulnerability and low IQ were checks put in place by their creators to prevent them from pulling a planet of the apes on their asses. The things are mass cloned from eZEmatic constructor nanites for zero cost anyways, who cares if they get fucked up.
For a sci-fi nerd, and I assume you are if your still thinking about Signs seven years later. You seem to have taken a lot of preconceptions about alien species to the theater with you. Try to have an open mind. Remember, just because a good director has to make a story plausible within the bounds they define doesn't mean they have to spoon feed the viewers everything! The water susceptibility and IQ weren't important to the story so they were left up to us.
I agree with you completely on Slashdot's value originating in it's ability to successfully aggregate good content for people who don't have time to fish through all the spin and junk out there these days. I also agree with you on sensationalism being a danger to the quality of content available on Slashdot.
In this case however, I think the RIAA took an incredibly straightforward court decision (only two pages long for heaven's sake) and ignored what wasn't convenient for them because they simply didn't care. While that outlook might make me less objective than I would otherwise be, I think past actions should count towards whether an organization or individual receives the benefit of the doubt.
While I very seldom post to this site I do enjoy following it closely for both the news and the unusually high quality of many posts. That being said, I've found the recent inclusion of idle material into the main page to be disconcerting in the extreme. The fact that slashdot boasts a robust filtering system isn't enough on it's own to justify the repeated posting of material that fails to inform, inspire, or otherwise positively influence anything.
I think many of the development staff's goals behind idle's inclusion in the main stream might be better addressed through a slashdot blog or somesuch (i.e. just how much crap the mod staff is regularly subjected too). If the goal was purely to break into the intertube's massive lolcat/political rant market, I think the slashdot team needs to understand that they will be sacrificing what has become a very respected position in the web community.
As it stands now, I would be less likely to refer a collegue to check out slashdot as a news source, simply because worrying about their reading "cocsuckers" in the first story they might happen accross isn't something I'm going to subject myself too.
Sorry, I would have posted sooner but auto update caused ultimate poker to crash and I had to coldboot. By the time I had loaded back into my desktop I'd forgotten what I was about to do. I'd stay and chat longer but it's running kind of slow and I dont' want that soundloop that starts when IE runs to come back.
"I play videogames. I vote. I will tell my family, friends and co-workers about your attitudes"
You do realize that the bill would make it illegal for retailers to sell Mature or Adults Only games to minors, and would impose fines and penalties on retailers who violate this policy?
The rest of the bill has to do with lowering the standards for a game to be given a harsher ESRB rating. This effects kids (who usually can't or don't vote anyways) and corporations (who don't want to lose any of their target market due to worried parents, it's the same way with movie ratings. Directors are asked to edit stuff down to PG13 all the time).
I understand why EA is trying to stop this but somehow I can't seem to get excited over something that won't effect me.
Can someone please explain to me exactly WHEN the FCC became a law-creation body?
That would have been when it was established by the Communications Act of 1934.
Here's a some reading material for you over the weekend: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/. I hear the section on Homeland Security is especially exciting.
Weaponizing space would be very unwise... Attacks on satellites would mean that wars become a whole lot more difficult for our forces in the field...
Who the hell is this guy to tell us we need to keep war EASY? One of war's few redeeming characteristics in our age is that it can no longer hide what a terrifying and painful process it is behind tales of valor and individual combat. War isn't meant to be easy, it never has been.
The easier war gets the less people will hesitate before engaging in it. It's already bad enough that I can "know" we are at war, with people dying bloodily every day, and barely give it a thought because it effects me not at all. Make war the dirtiest, most painful, and degrading thing possible and keep it that way.
So Fraiser retired his sword. "I had no idea how addicted I was. It had been such a habit to walk in the door and head straight for the computer that it took physical effort to get out of that state of mind. We tried other MMORPGs, but they paled in comparison. So piece by piece, we just got over ourselves and moved on. It disgusts me when I look back. I could've done so much more in the real world that I didn't, and I regret that badly.
This was exactly the case for my friends and I in high-school. Looking back now it is painfully clear that we were addicted to Everquest. Many of us lived for new raids, more levels, and better gear.
There is a reason however that I don't rank "MMO" addiction up with addictions to drugs or alcohol like so many in the media. This is because MMO addictions run their course and leave you largely immune to falling into your old habits with a new game. Like Frasier and his friends, noone I know still plays Everquest, also like him and his friends noone I know, after trying numerous new games to try to recapture the feel, was able to get as drawn in as we were with Everquest. It's not because EQ was that awesome a game, it's because after being so taken with a game for such a long time you aren't able to later find something which doesn't "pale in comparison".
You probably won't hear many recovering alcoholics or drug users tell you they tried their damndest to get back on the wagon and today's booze/drugs simply "pale in comparison" to what it would take to pull them back into their old ways.
Of course, I admit that there's one charge against video games that is a slam dunk. Kids don't get physical exercise when they play a video game, and indeed the rise in obesity among younger people is a serious issue. But, of course, you don't get exercise from doing homework either.
This guy obviously hasn't played Dance Dance Revolution before, that is an intense workout. Also as 3D total immersion gameplay begins to become more viable (I'd give it another 10-15years) that bit about a lack of physical excercise will go away.
The price of components for high-end PC gaming computers continues to fall even as the development of associated technology speeds up. Yet Sony is going to make their next generation console significantly more expensive than the current market has proven willing to support due in large part to fierce competition. They'll essentially be selling a mid-range gaming computer that only runs PS compatible software and can't be upgraded to keep pace with the competition.
Unless they plan on selling various upgrades over the course of this proposed 10-year cycle I can't see how this is going to work profitably for Sony.
Doesn't PC noise have more to do with the operating system? I remember a study a few months back which seemed to imply that windows machines were silent a whole lot more of the time compared to their competitors. Anybody remember that link?:p
I have a yearlong subscription to xbox live which I haven't used in almost three months. Why don't I feel bad about this? It came free with my copy of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (or whatever the name was, haven't played that in three months either:p).
Slashdot Mirror
(So let's just hope they're abundantly stupid like the aliens in Signs and never take into account the fact that if water kills you on contact, maybe you shouldn't invade a planet covered in mostly water, inhabited by beings made of mostly water. HTF did that movie ever get past the script stage?)
Use a little imagination, say the beings in Signs were actually biologic helper-constructs and that the water vulnerability and low IQ were checks put in place by their creators to prevent them from pulling a planet of the apes on their asses. The things are mass cloned from eZEmatic constructor nanites for zero cost anyways, who cares if they get fucked up.
For a sci-fi nerd, and I assume you are if your still thinking about Signs seven years later. You seem to have taken a lot of preconceptions about alien species to the theater with you. Try to have an open mind. Remember, just because a good director has to make a story plausible within the bounds they define doesn't mean they have to spoon feed the viewers everything! The water susceptibility and IQ weren't important to the story so they were left up to us.
In this case however, I think the RIAA took an incredibly straightforward court decision (only two pages long for heaven's sake) and ignored what wasn't convenient for them because they simply didn't care. While that outlook might make me less objective than I would otherwise be, I think past actions should count towards whether an organization or individual receives the benefit of the doubt.
The article's title should read: "RIAA Violating a Court Order in California".
While I very seldom post to this site I do enjoy following it closely for both the news and the unusually high quality of many posts. That being said, I've found the recent inclusion of idle material into the main page to be disconcerting in the extreme. The fact that slashdot boasts a robust filtering system isn't enough on it's own to justify the repeated posting of material that fails to inform, inspire, or otherwise positively influence anything. I think many of the development staff's goals behind idle's inclusion in the main stream might be better addressed through a slashdot blog or somesuch (i.e. just how much crap the mod staff is regularly subjected too). If the goal was purely to break into the intertube's massive lolcat/political rant market, I think the slashdot team needs to understand that they will be sacrificing what has become a very respected position in the web community. As it stands now, I would be less likely to refer a collegue to check out slashdot as a news source, simply because worrying about their reading "cocsuckers" in the first story they might happen accross isn't something I'm going to subject myself too.
Check out the book the movie was based on if you haven't already. Same title, it was written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Come on fellow nerds, you know you were digging that pink.
Sorry, I would have posted sooner but auto update caused ultimate poker to crash and I had to coldboot. By the time I had loaded back into my desktop I'd forgotten what I was about to do. I'd stay and chat longer but it's running kind of slow and I dont' want that soundloop that starts when IE runs to come back.
yeah I know, I've been refreshing that motherfucker like crazy and it's still loading at an acceptable speed. Get with it guys! /. FTW
You do realize that the bill would make it illegal for retailers to sell Mature or Adults Only games to minors, and would impose fines and penalties on retailers who violate this policy?
The rest of the bill has to do with lowering the standards for a game to be given a harsher ESRB rating. This effects kids (who usually can't or don't vote anyways) and corporations (who don't want to lose any of their target market due to worried parents, it's the same way with movie ratings. Directors are asked to edit stuff down to PG13 all the time).
I understand why EA is trying to stop this but somehow I can't seem to get excited over something that won't effect me.
Ah, the last bastion of the unskilled debater.
Or someone who works for a living and realizes his coffee break has stretched to 25 minutes.
"I think I saw that movie, the Robots won".
That would have been when it was established by the Communications Act of 1934.
Here's a some reading material for you over the weekend: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/. I hear the section on Homeland Security is especially exciting.
Now Microsoft will get what Time Warner got, and they'll get it good and hard.
I'm glad their looking ahead but this will be more newsworthy if they actually manage to pull it off.
Space Assurance or Space Dominance? The Case Against Weaponizing Space (Henry L. Stimson Center, 2003).
Paperback: 133 pages Publisher: The Henry L. Stimson Center (April 1, 2003) ISBN: 0974725528
Who the hell is this guy to tell us we need to keep war EASY? One of war's few redeeming characteristics in our age is that it can no longer hide what a terrifying and painful process it is behind tales of valor and individual combat. War isn't meant to be easy, it never has been.
The easier war gets the less people will hesitate before engaging in it. It's already bad enough that I can "know" we are at war, with people dying bloodily every day, and barely give it a thought because it effects me not at all. Make war the dirtiest, most painful, and degrading thing possible and keep it that way.
Does anyone here seriously believe Microsoft isn't going to be the market gorilla for the next 25years?
Microsoft has dominated the market for so long I can't see them viewing their own work as anything but the standard.
This was exactly the case for my friends and I in high-school. Looking back now it is painfully clear that we were addicted to Everquest. Many of us lived for new raids, more levels, and better gear.
There is a reason however that I don't rank "MMO" addiction up with addictions to drugs or alcohol like so many in the media. This is because MMO addictions run their course and leave you largely immune to falling into your old habits with a new game. Like Frasier and his friends, noone I know still plays Everquest, also like him and his friends noone I know, after trying numerous new games to try to recapture the feel, was able to get as drawn in as we were with Everquest. It's not because EQ was that awesome a game, it's because after being so taken with a game for such a long time you aren't able to later find something which doesn't "pale in comparison".
You probably won't hear many recovering alcoholics or drug users tell you they tried their damndest to get back on the wagon and today's booze/drugs simply "pale in comparison" to what it would take to pull them back into their old ways.
Isn't that akin to "As soon as hell freezes over"?
Let's see. Take one gigantic waste of money and add an even larger waste of money. What do you get?
A Congressional Spending Bill?
This guy obviously hasn't played Dance Dance Revolution before, that is an intense workout. Also as 3D total immersion gameplay begins to become more viable (I'd give it another 10-15years) that bit about a lack of physical excercise will go away.
The price of components for high-end PC gaming computers continues to fall even as the development of associated technology speeds up. Yet Sony is going to make their next generation console significantly more expensive than the current market has proven willing to support due in large part to fierce competition. They'll essentially be selling a mid-range gaming computer that only runs PS compatible software and can't be upgraded to keep pace with the competition. Unless they plan on selling various upgrades over the course of this proposed 10-year cycle I can't see how this is going to work profitably for Sony.
I mean seriously... Doom 4 isn't even out yet.
Doesn't PC noise have more to do with the operating system? I remember a study a few months back which seemed to imply that windows machines were silent a whole lot more of the time compared to their competitors. Anybody remember that link? :p
I have a yearlong subscription to xbox live which I haven't used in almost three months. Why don't I feel bad about this? It came free with my copy of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (or whatever the name was, haven't played that in three months either :p).